An absorbent composition for animal excreta is commonly known as an animal bedding or litter. Various beddings for animals are well known. For example, generally when animals such as cows, horses, mink, rabbits, gerbils, etc. are kept in a stall or a cage, a bedding material is used to absorb and mix with the animal excreta. Also, it has not been uncommon to use a bedding material for birds such as chickens and turkeys. House animals like cats often make use of a litter material which too is an absorbent composition for animal excreta.
Although absorbent compositions are used with a variety of animals, it is useful to consider the horse industry in more detail. Interestingly, in the United States the largest horse populations are located in some of the largest human population centers, such as Los Angeles County in California and Hennepin County in Minnesota. Consequently, many horses spend a lot of time in stalls, and it is well known in the industry that stall bedding is a major problem.
There are two predominant aspects of the bedding problem--availability of the product and disposal. Many years ago, straw was used almost exclusively as a bedding material. Today, a main bedding product is wood shavings including sawdust.
Straw is no longer widely used because of both the availability and disposal problems. With the advancement of agricultural machines, straw is no longer thrashed, but combined. Combining allows the absorbent chaff from the harvested plant to be separated from the stems or straw portion. Usually the chaff is not recovered but is tilled into the soil. Consequently, the straw which is available today not only does not have the absorbency of the straw product of years ago, but is not worth recovering and selling as a bedding. Even if straw is used as a bedding, it is slow to decay and massive amounts of straw and excreta commonly build up around a stable area. Furthermore, spreading is undesirable since most stables have only pasture land into which straw does not mix or work well without specifically tilling the land which, of course, is not possible on pasture land.
Wood shavings including sawdust are recognized as being easier to use, more economical, and much easier to clean from a stall. Wood shavings, however, are a by-product of a parent industry and subject to the demands of that industry. Furthermore, disposal of the wood shavings is no less troublesome than disposal of straw. Wood is extremely slow to decompose, taking approximately six years. During this time, valuable nitrogen is robbed from the decomposition product. The resultant compost is practically valueless. If wood shavings are spread on fields or pastures, the acidity of the wood causes an unwanted eventual change in the acid level of the soil, and often, landfills do not want waste wood products because of this slow decomposition. Additionally, weed seeds tend to be prevalent in a wood based bedding. If the bedding is not composted, the weed seeds otherwise survive the bedding cycle and are planted when the used bedding is spread on the land.
Slow decomposition of piles of straw and wood products soiled with excreta has resulted in an even more unpredicted aspect of the bedding problem. For many years, stables just piled waste bedding and excreta. Major population areas now, however, have pollution control agencies which are becoming more and more concerned about such piles contaminating not only ground water, but also underground streams. Consequently, disposal of animal bedding or litter and excreta may soon be subject to regulation.
The present invention then addresses not only availability and disposal of an animal absorbent, but may well alleviate political pressure to deal with a bulk waste problem.